The Third Sector Leadership Centre, a project of the Workforce Hub, is running an action learning sets programme for leaders of voluntary and community organisations in eastern and northwest England. Through action learning, participants share their perspectives on leadership challenges and find new and creative solutions. A commitment of one day a month over the next six months is needed, along with the support of the organisation’s board/committee.

See http://www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/DisplayPage.asp?pageid=9726 or email: perry.seymour@henleymc.ac.uk for further details. Application deadline 17th July.

GuideStar UK, the online database of charities, has introduced ‘The Giving Formula’ to help people track down the charities they want to support. Basically it has 3 dimensions - geographic scope, activity type (e.g. health, environment grouped into Personal, Emotional, Social, Environmental) and Proactive (campaigning and research)/ Reactive (providing services).

It might be a good idea to see how this impacts searching for your charity. http://www.guidestar.org.uk/gs_formula.aspx. (Note: GuideStar currently only covers England and Wales registered charities.)

The Government’s Welfare Reform Bill has been published (4th July), which is based on the Welfare Reform Green Paper ‘A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work’ and subsequent consultation.

When it becomes law, it will make changes to the benefits system for those on disability allowances and housing benefit, as well as provide support into work. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/aboutus/welfarereform/.

The new Work and Families Act 2006 provides for nine months Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay from April 2007 with “the goal of a year’s paid leave by the end of the Parliament”. It also introduces ‘Keeping in Touch’ days so that, where employees and employers agree, a women on maternity leave can go into work for a few days without losing benefits.

More at http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/workandfamilies/index.html, or wait until the full regulations and guidance are available.

A new DVD training tool showcases the experiences of successful social enterprises from across Scotland and provides practical information on how to develop such organisations and provide better support for communities. Plus advice from support bodies and coverage of S2S, Scotland’s first social enterprise trade fair.

Email: rebecca@indigops.com to obtain a copy (no charge) or see http://www.indigops.com/pages/social-dvd.htm.

‘Third sector provision of Employment-related services’, a report commissioned by the Public and Commercial Services Union from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences says that there is a “lack of evidence supporting the claim that the third sector has a superior record in delivering services compared to the public sector”. PCS general secretary Mark says that government plans to increase the role of the private and voluntary sector in the provision of public services will see “the voluntary sector opening up services for contests which can subsequently be won by the private sector”.

The report (Word format, 533kb) is linked from the PCS press release at http://www.pcs.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=903413, or see The Guardian’s take at http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,,1811200,00.html (Government turns charities into multimillion-pound businesses).

The North Staffordshire Risk Capital Fund, a community development finance institution (CDFI), is having its Community Investment Tax Relief accreditation withdrawn after it missed its first lending target under the scheme. CDFIs must redistribute 25 per cent of funds received through CITR within one year.

Umbrella organisation the Community Development Finance Association said: “The withdrawal is a one-off. We want to learn from it.” See Regen.net item.

Detailed results from last year’s Citizenship Survey (originally run by the Home Office) have now been published for four subject areas: Community Cohesion, Race and Faith, Cross-cutting Themes and Active Communities.

The latter report, looking at people’s involvement in volunteering activities, charitable giving, and civil renewal activities, can be found at http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1501049. The web page also links to the other reports, or see headline figures on the press release: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2183.

Refugees into Business is a new web site (http://www.refugeesintobusiness.org.uk) set up as part of a year-long project run by the Refugee Enterprise Partnership.

It offers a self-help guide to establishing a business in the UK, details on training courses and a guide for refugee advisers on how to support refugees as they start up in enterprise.

Note that all advice documents are in pdf format and cookies have to be enabled for downloads to work.

The House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee has published its report into the first year’s experience of the new Freedom of Information Act, which came into effect in January 2005.

While it has proved useful and effective, leading to the release of significant and valuable information, there is concern about some delays and the complaints resolution process of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Report index or PublicTechnology.net news item.

Umbrella body SCVO has launched a Governance Programme web site, with “all you need to know about effective governance in the Scottish voluntary sector”.

http://www.scvo.org.uk/governance/Home/Home.aspx.

Scottish charity regulator OSCR has issued guidance on a ‘fast track’ process for existing unincorporated charities on Scottish register wanting to become a Company Limited by Guarantee.